Question: Ishaan is 14 years older than Tiffany. Nineteen years ago, Ishaan was 3 times as old as Tiffany. How old is Tiffany now?
Answer: We can use the given information to write down two equations that describe the ages of Ishaan and Tiffany. Let Ishaan's current age be $i$ and Tiffany's current age be $t$ The information in the first sentence can be expressed in the following equation: $i = t + 14$ Nineteen years ago, Ishaan was $i - 19$ years old, and Tiffany was $t - 19$ years old. The information in the second sentence can be expressed in the following equation: $i - 19 = 3(t - 19)$ Now we have two independent equations, and we can solve for our two unknowns. Because we are looking for $t$ , it might be easiest to use our first equation for $i$ and substitute it into our second equation. Our first equation is: $i = t + 14$ . Substituting this into our second equation, we get the equation: $(t + 14)$ $-$ $19 = 3(t - 19)$ which combines the information about $t$ from both of our original equations. Simplifying both sides of this equation, we get: $t - 5 = 3 t - 57$ Solving for $t$ , we get: $2 t = 52$ $t = 26$.